Healing

Today, I preached from Luke's version of Jesus healing the woman suffering from hemorrhages and raising Jairus' daughter. Not to brag too much, but I laid it down this morning. By the time I finished preaching, I had worked up a sweat and people couldn't wait to get out and share the Good News with others (or maybe it was noon and they were ready for lunch).

I'm always amazed at how God will use these sermons to transform me. I will go home on Sunday afternoon and feel like I needed the message as much as anybody else.

To make a long story short, I preached on healing. I talked about what needs we have for healing, whether it's physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual - but that in all circumstances God heals for the eternal consequences, not simply to heal the body, which is temporary.

For almost four years, I've been carrying around a broken relationship with a very good friend. Today, that relationship was restored. That friend may be reading this tonight, and a part of me hopes that he is.

We parted ways over something stupid, but a few weeks ago, I felt prompted to try to contact him. We reconnected, and in good time too - both of us are dealing the stresses that life brings and can certainly use each others' support.

I can say that this reconciliation was ALL God. If I had to try to fix it on my own, I would have certainly screwed things up worse. What's even more incredible is that until today, I didn't realize the burden that I was carrying by not speaking to my friend. I needed healing and didn't even know it.

What about you? If we live the barbarian life that we are called to, we will be wounded - we will hurt, we will be persecuted, things will go wrong, we will fall short. Often, the most important person on the battlefield of life is the one who brings us healing - who gets us off our backs and back into the fight. What kind of healing do you need? What burden is slowing you down?

God may tell you "No, I won't fix that for you." He told Paul that and Paul tells us that in 2nd Corinthians. Sometimes, God simply tells us that his grace is sufficient and that his power is made perfect in our weakness.

But the truth is this: unless we ask God to heal us and mend our lives, we won't get an answer either way. What's slowing you down?